Tungsten cube…

I just bought a 2” tungsten cube that came with a 1” one as a desk toy. Soooo cool. The 2” weighs 5.2 lbs (2.36 kg)

I’d love to get the 4” one which weighs like 42 pounds but it’s about $3,000

I looked it up. It is cool. Hard to justify the $$.

Some time ago I bought some 1 Kilo copper bars. Also cool. Unlike Tungsten, these were like $12 or so.

Yeah it’s amazing how heavy the 2” one is in your hand. It’s too bad they aren’t cheaper… I don’t carry if the dimensions are accurate to 0.001” and 99.9% purity or whatever. A big lump of tungsten would be just as cool

Although sitting on the little plastic stand, it looks like a Borg ship from star trek

Tungsten Borg cube, that would be effing awesome! :sunglasses:

i have a wedding band made of tungsten, very heavy ring,

As do my wife and I.
We originally had Platinum rings which scratched very easily so we keep those in a safe place and wear the tungsten ones day to day. The tungsten rings are heavy and almost impossible to scratch, just don’t drop them as they are quite brittle.

This reminds me of the Demolition Ranch video on Youtube with one of those 2” cubes.

He placed it on a table and shot at it with various different firearms. Most didn’t even scratch it.

Even the 50 cal Armor Piercing round barely managed to put a small divot in the side.

Apparently those cubes are really tough.

Ha wow…. Yeah some bozos on YouTube dropped the 4 inch off towers and smashed through things. I have a zero tolerance tactical pen with a tungsten carbide tip and man that thing will shatter a brick

No wonder ballpoints are made of that stuff, it is seriously tough.

yes tungsten is denser than gold, if that is important to you!

i have some tungsten carbide rings, just be sure to get jewelry grade, some of the cheap ones get dark grey pretty fast

Yeah I’m completely fascinated by it. Couldn’t figure out why people buy these things. Even the 1 inch weighs like 2/3 of a pound.

Totally random musing… i wonder if it’s possible to make a compound or other material that’s a lot denser than this?

they are not much more dense but WAY more expensive!

Osmium 22.6 g/cm^3.
Iridium 22.4 g/cm^3. …
Platinum 21.45 g/cm^3. …
Neptunium 20.2 g/cm^3. …
Plutonium 19.84 g/cm^3. …
Tungsten 19.35 g/cm^3. …
Gold 19.32 g/cm^3. …
Uranium 18.95 g/cm^3. …

Perhaps “alloy” was the word I was looking for. I wonder if it’s possible to mix metal A with metal B, heat treat etc, and come up with an alloy that’s denser than either pure A or B metal

It is possible. Steel is an example.

They outta just rename it tuffsten.

Tungsten is one of the hardest and densest metals on earth. It trades its hardness for brittleness though.

When fidget spinners were all the rage, I bought a small tungsten one from a boutique company. I love the heft of it in the hand.

Anode for a makeshift short arc light engine using a TIG welder with HF start?

Don’t confuse the carbide version (alloy) with the elemental version.

The base metal is heavy but is also easy to drill, file, saw, or machine cut with normal tools into whatever shape you want. It will not crack if you drop it on your foot or floor.

The carbide is hard, brittle and not as dense since it is 50% carbon atoms. This will crack if dropped or hit with a hammer or thrown in your tool box to bang around. You can’t file, drill, saw or cut it with normal tools.

I think the one Demolition Ranch shot with a 50 caliber armor piercing round from a Barrett was not an alloy. It didn’t shatter.

I just picked up yet another hobby to become obsessed with. High end custom slingshots. Most people shoot steel or lead balls but it occurred to me that tungsten ones would be super dense with more energy.